Saturday, October 1, 2016

Refutation of Flat Earth stupidity

Here are some random thoughts I wrote down after watching a video that supposedly proved that the earth is flat.

The
"flat earth" theory is more popular now than it has been in
a few hundred years. From what I can tell, it is a YouTube trend for
armchair 'scientists' and 'theologians'. Nobody in the real world has
come to the conclusion that the earth is flat, the only people who
think it is flat are people who watch YouTube all day. If you ask a
flat earther "how did you get started on the flat earth theory",
they will have to admit that they saw some dude teaching it on the
internet....and of course, if it is on the internet then it must be
true, right?

When
you see people promoting the flat earth you can tell that they really
LOVE the idea of it. It is part of their personality, they love the
attention. They just love weird things, and the flat earth is the
perfect conspiracy theory. It requires you to reject the popular
view, conspiracy theorists love to be different. The FE theory also
requires you to believe that NASA, pilots, all astronomers (even the
Christian ones), and all world governments have been lying to
everyone for hundreds of years. The common people have been being
tricked into believing in a globe earth. Why? Why would anyone lie
about the shape of the earth? Well, the flat earthers haven't figured
that out yet themselves, but as soon as they think of something, I'm
sure we'll see it on YouTube.

Flat
Earthers like to pretend that the "globe earth" is a new
idea, a lie, popularized by NASA (for some unknown reason). However,
Greek astronomers believed in the globe earth in the third century
BC.....so the globe is far from being a new NASA conspiracy.

Conspiracy
theorists have three areas of interest:

They
like attention, which is their driving force for accepting
conspiracies. They generally have no interest in popular/majority
opinions and studies. (Ex. They had rather spend time studying
supposed Sasquatches than real animals.)

They
like things that are odd, extraordinary, and downright weird. They
like things that will make their friends say, "Wow! Are you
sure? I've never heard that before."

They have an
affinity with deception. They view everyone that is not 'in on'
their conspiracies as liars who are trying to brainwash the world.
Conspiracy theorists think they are the only ones that know the
truth about important matters.

Some
professing Christians are conspiracy theorists, so naturally some of
them have jumped on this Flat Earth bandwagon. Not only have they
adopted the FE view, they have also tried to make it a Christian
doctrine.

One FE kook has claimed that you cannot understand
the Bible unless you believe in a flat shaped earth. "75
bible verses in congruance with a flat earth"

And guess what? This
same guy claims to have had contact with demons and aliens. His
Youtube channel says, "I was attacked by demons, fought them
off by not giving into my fear and then the next night I found a
website that said alien abductions are actually demonic attacks and
they stop in the name of Jesus. A couple of hours after that I got
attacked by what I thought were aliens again and the first thing in
my mind that I said was “Jesus help me” and it stopped."
WEIRD!!! That video has 2,870
views, 77 likes, and only 17 dislikes. That is a lot of "likes"
for such a stupid video. Further proof that the FE theorists are just
YouTube watchers that have nothing better to do. These supposed
Christians also like to pretend like regular people (globe believers)
are not good Christians because we have believed the "evolutionist"
lie of the globe earth. FE theorists try to link normal Christians
with evolutionists because we believe in a globe earth. Which is dumb
and not very nice. FE Christians have
Athenian syndrome. "For all the Athenians and
strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but
either to tell, or to hear some new thing." (Acts
17:21)

What is ironic is
that the FE theory is an agnostic/evolutionist theory. The head of
the Flat Earth Society is an evolutionist, Daniel Shenton. The most
popular FE theorist is Eric Dubay, a self proclaimed "vegan
anarchist" yoga instructor in Thailand. But, when these
conspiracy-theory-loving Christians ran to their Bibles as soon as
they heard about the FE on Youtube in order to find verses that they
could read the FE theory into. The watched Eric Dubay on YouTube and
said "Wow, this is awesome. I'm gonna try and find that in the
Bible."

So
here I have responded to the proof texts used by FE theorists.

1.) "Four
Corners": Flat earthers often use verses like Revelation 7:1
to say that the Earth cannot be a globe. They say that a globe cannot
have four corners because it does not have points where two
converging lines meet. However, most flat earthers believe that the
earth is a 'flat' circular disc, so by that reasoning their earth
model does not have four corners either! That is hypocritical in my
opinion. It is clear that the "four corners" is just a
reference to the whole earth. The "four corners" just
refers to the whole earth, every direction, north/south/east/west.
Such as Isaiah 11:12 "And he shall set up an ensign for the
nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather
together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the
earth." It is clear that the verse is just referring to the
Jews being gathered from the whole earth. It is not saying that the
earth has four edges that the Jews all went to. Webster's 1828
dictionary lists this as one of the definitions of "corner".
"5. Indefinitely any part; a part. They searched every corner
of the forest. They explored all corners of the country. 6. The end,
extremity or limit; as the corners of the head or beard. Leviticus
21:5 and 19."

Ezekiel
7:2 says, "Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD unto
the land of Israel; An end, the end is come upon the four corners
of the land." Obviously this is saying that all Israel is
going to have an end come upon it, but flat earther logic would make
this passage refer to judgment coming on the four edges of Israel
(which would make no sense).

Further, most flat
earthers believe that their flat/circular earth has a ring of ice
around it where nobody lives. They say that people cannot even get to
the edge of it. So how did the Jews get to the edge of it in Isaiah
11:12?

Not
only that, but the Bible says that our head has corners. "Ye
shall not round the corners of your heads," (Lev. 19:27)

2.) "Not Moved":
Flat earthers use 1 Chronicles 16:30, Ps. 93:1, and 96:10 to teach
that the Earth does not move (geocentricity has been called the
'gateway drug to the flat earth). However, the passages are
millennial passages referring to the 'WORLD to come', the system that
Christ will set up in His earthly reign (Matt. 19:28, Heb. 2:5). They
are not referring to the "world" in a physical geographical
sense, but a political world system. The world that will be
established and not moved is the millennial age when Christ will be
here to "judge the people righteously" and all the world
rejoices, in contrast to our "present evil world" (Gal.
1:4). Flat earthers take the passage out of context and pretend like
it is referring to the present physical earth, even though the
passage clearly says "the world also shall be
established". 1 Chronicles 16:33 clearly says that it is a
Second Advent context. 1 Chronicles 16:[30]
Fear before him, all the earth: the world also shall be stable, that
it be not moved.[31] Let the heavens be glad, and let the
earth rejoice: and let men say among the nations, The LORD
reigneth.[32] Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof:
let the fields rejoice, and all that is therein.[33] Then
shall the trees of the wood sing out at the presence of the LORD,
because he cometh to judge the earth.[34] O give thanks
unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.[35]
And say ye, Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together,
and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy
name, and glory in thy praise.

Psalms
96:10 Say among the heathen that the LORD reigneth: the world also
shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the
people righteously.

3.) Sun's Circuit:
Flat earthers say that the sun revolves above their flat stationary
earth. They use Psalms 19:1-6 as a proof text.

Psalms 19:[1]
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his
handywork.[2] Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto
night sheweth knowledge.[3] There is no speech nor
language, where their voice is not heard.[4] Their line is
gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the
world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,[5]
Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as
a strong man to run a race.[6] His going forth is from the
end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is
nothing hid from the heat thereof.

The
passage cannot be used as God's scientific declaration on
geocentricity. Psalms 19 is a figurative passage as seen by the
statements "Day unto day uttereth speech", "their
words", "Which is AS a bridegroom coming out of his
chamber, and rejoiceth AS a strong man to run a race". The
passage is written from man's perspective about what looking at the
firmament "SHEWETH". From man's perspective the sun does
rise and set. Because we are on the earth looking up at the heavens,
to us it looks like the sun is moving. Psalms 19:5-6 is personifying
the Sun ("his") AS a bridegroom coming out of his chamber
and AS a strong man running a race.

4.) Dome: The
word "dome" isn't in the Bible. The word "firmament"
means expanse, it is referring to the heavens. The birds fly "in
the open firmament of heaven" (Gen. 1:20). The firmament
is not a hard/glassy dome. There is a sea of glass in the third
heaven at the throne of God (Rev. 4:6), but nowhere does the Bible
say that there is one covering the earth. The Flat Earth dome-theory
is not original to them, it is just a refried "canopy theory"
idea. 5.)"Pillars
of the earth": Flat earth theorists use 1 Samuel 2:8 and Job
9:6 to teach that the earth is on stationary pillars. But Bible
believer's know that the earth hangs on NOTHING..."He stretcheth
out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon
nothing." (Job 26:7)

The
"pillars" of the earth are tectonic plates holding up the
dry land. The earth has literal layers (and "bars" Jonah
2:6) that hold up the dry land. According to Job 9:6, these pillars
"tremble" (like earth quakes).

"He raiseth up
the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the
dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the
throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, and he
hath set the world upon them." (1 Samuel 2:8)

"Which
shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble."
(Job 9:6)

Besides
that, since when is Hannah's prayer a scientific declaration on the
shape of the earth?